Another Ejection, Another Death On Highway

Remember the word association games where you say a word and I have to say the first word that pops into my head. After representing injured persons for 37 years there is only one association that tragically jumps into my mind whenever I hear that someone was ejected from an automobile in an accident – death or very serious injury. And, sadly, the ejection is almost always because the person was not wearing a seat belt.

It was about four years ago when my car was struck at an intersection and rolled over twice. Amazingly, the time from the collision to the end of the rolling seemed to take 30 to 60 seconds. It was like I was rolling in slow motion. I was wearing my seat belt and remember having thoughts about how it was holding me in place even when I was upside down. It did its job so well that I did not have a bruise on my body. My car was a total loss.

I write all of this because of an article in today’s St. Pete Times. Parents, I believe it should be clipped from the newspaper and taped to every teenager’s bedroom door.

Crash leaves 1 dead, 4 hurt

Steven Corso, football fanatic and lover of the outdoors, listened to his mother harp on the importance of seat belts ever since he was 10. That’s when a seat belt had saved her life in a car accident.

The Pasco County teenager wasn’t wearing his seat belt when he was ejected about two hours later from a Dodge Neon in north Pinellas County, a Florida Highway Patrol report said.

Corso was among four passengers packed into Richard Walter David Zwack’s red Neon as it flew west down Pasaje Avenue. Authorities said Zwack, 19, lost control of the car after speeding through a stop sign on Dixie Highway. It spun around for nearly a quarter of a mile, witnesses said, discharging passengers as it collided with two utility poles, several mailboxes, a chain-link fence and a parked car.

Remember the word association games where you say a word and I have to say the first word that pops into my head. After representing injured persons for 37 years there is only one association that tragically jumps into my mind whenever I hear that someone was ejected from an automobile in an accident – death or very serious injury. And, sadly, the ejection is almost always because the person was not wearing a seat belt.

It was about four years ago when my car was struck at an intersection and rolled over twice. Amazingly, the time from the collision to the end of the rolling seemed to take 30 to 60 seconds. It was like I was rolling in slow motion. I was wearing my seat belt and remember having thoughts about how it was holding me in place even when I was upside down. It did its job so well that I did not have a bruise on my body. My car was a total loss.

I write all of this because of an article in today’s St. Pete Times. Parents, I believe it should be clipped from the newspaper and taped to every teenager’s bedroom door.

Crash leaves 1 dead, 4 hurt

Steven Corso, football fanatic and lover of the outdoors, listened to his mother harp on the importance of seat belts ever since he was 10. That’s when a seat belt had saved her life in a car accident.

The Pasco County teenager wasn’t wearing his seat belt when he was ejected about two hours later from a Dodge Neon in north Pinellas County, a Florida Highway Patrol report said.

Corso was among four passengers packed into Richard Walter David Zwack’s red Neon as it flew west down Pasaje Avenue. Authorities said Zwack, 19, lost control of the car after speeding through a stop sign on Dixie Highway. It spun around for nearly a quarter of a mile, witnesses said, discharging passengers as it collided with two utility poles, several mailboxes, a chain-link fence and a parked car.